With the aim of driving digital transformation, Siemens took part in the recent Africa Automation Fair at the Ticketpro Dome from 6 – 8 June 2017. The company’s 126 m2 stand featured solutions for process industries, factory automation, and digital solutions including motion control, industrial networks, and drives. The impressive displays were coupled with professional experts who were able to provide specifications, use-cases, and applications of the wide-range of products on show.
Ralf Leinen, VP of digital factory for Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa, was at the show to tell visitors how the company is “driving the digital enterprise” – which was the company’s overarching theme at the exhibition. According to Leinen, manufacturers are requiring more flexible, agile, and connected solutions that help them bring their products to the market faster than ever before. This results in an increasing demand in digitalisation, and this is what Siemens aims to deliver. Digitalisation changes everything, said Leinen, and Siemens aims to support the process and automation industry every step of the way. To learn more about how they do this, watch EE Publishers’ interview with the Siemens team at the Africa Automation Fair below:
The Siemens Simatic PSC7 process control system was a highlight at the stand, and the company’s Tyrone Naidoo was at hand to explain its uses and benefits. The PCS7 system offers up to 50% faster engineering time than the average PLC SCADA system. It makes use of predefined blocks that can be dragged into the system and addressed, and then the graphics are compiled. Engineers no longer have to do any physical tagging, as this is done by the system. According to Naidoo, this system is a highly-efficient diagnostic tool, and is incredibly user-friendly.
The company’s new software packages were on show at the exhibition stand, and were presented by Mikhail Vakhutinskiy, head of process automation for Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa. These packages were namely COMOS for industrial engineering; and the SIMIT simulation platform. SIMIT assists users in finding faults in an installation while it is still in the planning phase. This directly assists in optimising workflow and producing shortly setup and commissioning times. COMOS supports end-to-end plant asset management across the entire lifecycle of an industrial plant. This helps plant engineers and operating personnel to minimise design cost and time, and maximise equipment uptime – also assisting in workflow optimisation. According to Vakhutinskiy, these packages grant seamless integration and implementation of digitalisation in process industries.
The Siemens stand at the Africa Automation Fair was constantly bustling with delegates interested in learning more about the wide range of automation solutions on show. From hardware to software, the company has multiple products for use in the process and manufacturing industries. To learn more about these solutions, view the Siemens automation portfolio here.
